Shadow Hunter vs Demon Hunter II
by Ihsan997
Summary: Kenda just can't get a break. Solo PvE questing ought to be a pleasant experience, but a blast from her recent past feels otherwise. (middle installment; twoshot)
1. Outside Suramar

**A/N: sorry for the previous version of the story! It was a repost by accident. You are now reading the correct, official part two.**

On one side of a shaded cobblestone road in rural Suramar, a flash of purple and green folded over itself in the verdant grass. Grunts and growls echoed in the trees, combining with the dust and grass kicked up as the two blurs of color wrestled with each other briefly. Despite the violent movement, no blood had yet been shed as the two blurs fought for dominance.

Prismatic light shifted in the purple range of the color spectrum as a feline roar rang out one last time. Defiant no longer, a purple mana saber tried to kick its attacker one more time after being pinned, but eventually gave in to the curses inflicting its mind. Even a creature composed mostly of arcane magic could resist the mind control of voodoo for only so long. Triumphant, a green skinned and green haired woman clad in bone, wood and leather rolled over the big cat, putting it in a headlock and wrapping one of her legs around its front paw to avoid getting scratched. After nearly ten minutes of struggling with the creature, she found herself able to breathe as she retained her grip on its head and neck.

Panting as they both caught their breath, the green and purple blurs became splotches as they both found themselves out of energy. Opalescent and violet fur heaved as the runesaber's body failed to resist the curse applied to its willpower, granting the forest troll ample time to catch her breath prior to the execution. Whispering a brief prayer of thanks, she relaxed her grip only enough to allow her to drag her skinning knife across the animal's jugular. The blade was so sharp, and her slice to smooth, that the runesaber didn't even seem to notice as it shut its eyes and bled to death.

Arcane mana staining her arms, the green woman let go of her kill and sat up straight, sifting through her travel pack until she produced an odd attunement stone covered in runes. Upon dragging her fingers across the etched marks, the stone began to hum, vibrating as the various shades of violet on the animal's skin fluctuated in asymmetrical patterns. Strands of arcane magic flowed from the corpse to the stone, draining the ancient mana for later use.

Although she'd fared well, Kenda had taken a measure of damage from the runesaber's teeth and claws, and thick blood dripped down her arms, back and legs. She was capable of healing herself, but preferred to allow her natural regeneration to close up the wounds if possible. After quite the afternoon hunting down the mystical mana cats, she felt she needed the solitude and a bit of a mental rest.

Pulling out her waterskin, Kenda took a few swigs as she inspected the scenery. "Crazy ass junkies," she murmured, remembering the weird night elves who weren't really night elves and had begged her for more ancient mana if they were to open portals for her. Or something like that.

At least her surroundings were pleasant to look at. She hadn't really noticed the long, limp branches of the willows previously since she'd been pursuing all the runesabers in the area, but she'd just killed the last of them. All potential threats removed, Kenda spread her palms out behind her, crossed her legs, and just enjoyed the feeling of the soft leaves covering the grass.

The hills and backwater areas of Suramar were quite nice to look at. She didn't enjoy them as much as she enjoyed her native woods back in Lordaeron, but the enchanted forest to the north of the urban area held a certain charm that couldn't be denied. A light breeze caused the treetops to sway, granting her occasional glimpses of the sun that were quickly covered again when the branches of the various high trees converged. The trees weren't as high as the ones where she came from, nor as straight, but their curvy and almost rounded nature provided the sort of seclusion such an afternoon called for. Long after she'd already caught her breath, she continued to sit in the grass, just enjoying the smells and sounds all around her.

If she closed her eyes and focused for a moment, she could almost hear the faint chirps of birds in the treetops far, far away. Her sensitive hearing helped her to guess that the sound might have been coming from over a mile away, though the occasional return of the breeze would cause their songs to be lost in the wind. She didn't mind, of course. She'd been the Broken Isles for a few months, mostly being sent on missions behind enemy lines, alone, and given only minimal supplies. She was getting the adventure she'd craved ever since she'd left the Hinterlands, but it was only there, on that grassy gnoll in the woodlands of Suramar, that she realized she could use a break.

In between short gusts of the wind, she noticed that the birds had stopped chirping. Whether they'd decided to fly away or simply fallen silent was lost to her, and she tried to ignore the relative silence and enjoy the warm, tingly sensation in the back of her head as she tried to relax. Not that she was complaining about the recognition she'd gained for her skills - being a Jill-of-all-trades, she'd both saved lives with her healing, captured important Legion enemies with her status ailments, and brought down an eredar or two when her martial skills were called for. She was never short of work from her commanding officers, and that's what she'd always wanted, but still...it was nice to rest without killing anything for a while.

Only faintly did her long ears pick up the sound of rapid footsteps. Far, far away, in the same direction as the birds, the sounds of a bipedal creature running reached her. Although the speed was quite high, whoever it was was still a good ways away, and Kenda had to force herself to lazily open her eyes and cock her head to the side. Over the horizon and in between the high trees, a dark figure dressed in purple approached. Unlike the runesaber she'd slain, however, this was most definitely sentient, armed, and heading right for her.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!"

Just as she'd experienced in Falonaar just after her arrival in the Broken Isles, Kenda noticed a familiar face sprinting toward her as if the world was coming to an end. The closer the figure came, the more details became apparent, though they weren't necessary to identify the person. The moment that Kenda noticed the war glaives, purple hair and distinctively tied blindfold, she knew exactly who it was.

Irritated, unnerved, and frankly shocked that the spastic night elf had tracked her down, she popped her joints and rose up from the grass, gripping her arm-length fel blades and measuring the remaining distance in between them. Her long-lost enemy was running faster than Kenda's ground mount could have, almost forming a blur of purple and dark grey as the gap was closed. The demon hunter broke into the clearing where Kenda's grass gnoll was, slowing down only long enough to seemingly size up their surroundings.

Even when the shadow hunter took a defensive stance, Neruda didn't hesitate. "Finally, it's time for my glorious revenge!" the eyeless elf yelled into the enormous clearing, filling the area with an absolutely infuriated voice.

Kenda rolled her eyes. "Cheesy," she retorted in Low Common before drawing on her mana pool. Voodoo magic tingled the surface of her skin, brightening her vision for a few moments as she gathered up the power for an early advantage in the unwanted nuisance of a fight. "Hun, I only be warning you once...back off. Neither of us needs to be fighting each other." Her warning went unheeded, and the horned night creature kept on coming. "Alright, you asked for it," she said again when she realized that there was no way to avoid conflict with the proverbial blast from her past.

Neruda came within perhaps only five yards of the forest troll before the crazed woman seemed to realize that a spell was being cast. Although she didn't have eyes, her long eyebrows were visible enough to reflect her glare.

"Not this time!" Neruda shouted as she actually dug her heels into the ground and stopped herself so abruptly that she almost lost her balance. "Raa!"

A cold feeling washed over the surface of Kenda's skin, causing her to gasp out loud as the same feeling as a severely empty stomach hit her hard. She was fine physically, but the hollowness of an interrupted spell stung her as she realized that Neruda had consumed her magic only a few seconds into their encounter.

"Don't be forcing my hand!" Kenda growled, now legitimately irritated. Raising her blades, she prepared for the inevitable clash.

Lines cut at her through the air in several directions, testing her blocking skills as Neruda dashed and dove all over the place. Kenda raised her arms, keeping her elbow bent the way she'd been taught and deflecting the blows patiently. Her opponent was fast, and seemed to pivot and change direction more dextrously than she had during their previous encounter. Swinging from the left, from the right, jumping in the air and bringing her glaives down, Neruda was like a ball of energy drinking raw sugar, throwing everything except the kitchen sink within what couldn't have been longer than five seconds. Kenda wouldn't have known because she was too busy swinging her shoulders and elbows to block blade with blade, duck or dodge when necessary, and circling around to give way against the barrage without allowing herself to be pushed against the trees. She hissed a few times when Neruda successfully landed a few cuts on the mossy hide of her forearms and shoulders, but otherwise found defending herself about as easy as it had been back at the practice yard in her hometown.

Parrying the attacks was made easier, of course, by the attacker's ridiculous habit of screaming her moves out loud as she performed them.

"Ha ha! Ha ha! Chaos strike, chaos strike, blade dance, chaos strike, fel rush!" Neruda screamed with glee as she tried to charge right into her target. "I am unstoppable!"

When Neruda rushed at the end of the surprisingly forceful barrage, Kenda simply sidestepped, having noticed the kick of Neruda's heels before the aggressive elf had even screamed 'fel rush' at the top of her lungs.

"Haaaaaa!" Neruda screamed so hoarsely that she sounded like a chain smoker, though Kenda had noticed that most members of her class sounded a bit demonic like that.

Green fel fire lit the grass ablaze in a trail behind her, granting Kenda a veritable arrow pointing to her target when Neruda's fel rush missed by literally a few feet. Not granting her opponent the chance to regroup, Kenda took her turn to rush forward, forcing Neruda to spin around in a circle to meet her strike defensively. Though Kenda lacked the wide array of melee techniques of her opponent, she was as capable with her blades as Zul'jin had been, and laid into Neruda so hard that the woman was knocked sideways even when successfully blocking.

"Grrr! No! NO! This isn't how it's suppose to! Argh!" Neruda growled back, visibly frustrated by being put on the defensive.

Try as she might, the night elf wasn't able to counterattack. Kenda continued her slower but harder strikes, knocking Neruda backward every time the mad elf tried to make a comeback. On the last of several slices, the forest troll actually broke Neruda's parry attempt, jarring the eyeless woman's wrist so roughly that Neruda dropped one of her war glaives and essentially lost the ability to defend herself on one side. Kenda only needed one more successful strike to sever the woman's arm, and given her level of irritation, she had half a mind not to be as merciful as she'd been last-

"Haaa!" Neruda yelled while leaping straight back. She landed a few yards away, successfully putting distance in between them and buying herself a small bit of time. Instead of using that time intelligently, however, she appeared to be swinging her single war glaives in the air in front of her like a sort of martial arts demostration.

"Hooaaa! Hah! Heeeyaa! Ho!" the night elf shouted, unaware of the fact that Kenda could have just dashed forward and cut her down on the spot.

Instead, it was the forest troll's turn for a momentary lapse in reason, and she just stood there, stupefied by what she was seeing. "Dafuq?" Kenda asked out loud, unsure of what exactly her attacker was trying to pull.

Surprisingly, Neruda seemed absolutely dead serious. "And now I'll show you my _final_ form!" she yelled in a threatening yet ragged voice.

Kenda was just about ready to drop her weapons and ask who'd paid Neruda for the bad prank. Disbelief caused her to drop her guard, and she barely even acted as green embers flaked off of Neruda's skin. "What the...final form? Seriously? What you be, like twelve years old HOLY SHIT WHAT BE WRONG WITH YOU!"

Green smoke puffed into the air as Neruda underwent a metamorphosis, growing until she was even bigger than the forest troll, sprouting wings, and burning like a true demon. Stomping her gnarled feet on the ground, mega-Neruda raised her fists in the air and screeched in a warped, possessed voice somewhat akin to that of a shivarra.

"Ha hahahaha!" the warped demon-elf-hybrid cackled into the air while tossing her head back. "Now you'll see the true meaning of real ultimate power! Cower before me as I cast you down with my righteous vengeance and furious anger! And - wait, what are you mumbling ACK NO NO!"

While Neruda had been busy delivering some sort of a prepared revenge speech where she'd ostensibly detail her evil plan, Kenda had realized that the spell lock she'd been hit with moments ago had already worn off. Gathering up most of her mana pool, she multi-casted several different voodoo curses at once, afflicting Neruda with fatigue, weakness, dizziness, searing pain in most of her nervous system, and an annoying spontaneous buildup of earwax just for good measure. The mass of curses hit the demon hunter all at once, causing her massive metamorphosized frame to double over for a split second.

That split second was all the shadow hunter needed, or wanted. Not even bothering to taunt her attacker, Kenda pounced, slicing several nasty gashes into Neruda's undefended arm without granting the woman the chance to protect herself. In an attempt to strike back, Neruda swung wildly with her remaining glaive, the curses wearing her too much to swing with force and paining her too much to really focus. She missed by a long shot, allowing Kenda to bring her blade down across the woman's stomach and hip. Neruda fell to the ground face first while still in demon form, but Kenda sliced the webbing of her temporary wings just for good measure.

Defeated in the duel and brought to the brink of her health, Neruda reverted to her normal elven form, oddly seeming to bear less severe wounds when she transformed back into herself. There were still painful looking wounds on her arm and abdomen, but they weren't nearly as deep or threatening as they'd been when initially inflicted on her demon form. Not wanting to wait and see if she'd still be able to attack, Kenda repeated the same end to their previous battle.

"Come here, you!" Kenda snapped while pulling the spare rope she always kept tied in a loop to her belt. Not even bothering with Neruda's wounded arm, she just tied the woman's ankles tightly and started to drag her backward in the grass.

Exhausted but retaining barely enough energy to speak, Neruda's voice broke like it had during their encounter at the Ledgermain Inn weeks prior. "I was winning! I was _winning_!" she lamented, sounding more sad than angry as Kenda dragged her on her wounded stomach over to a tree. "I can't lose in my final form! I would have destroyed you if you'd actually fought me courageously!"

Kenda tossed the end of the rope over a high branch, waiting for the slack to come down so she could tie a knot on the length. "Which be why I didn't actually try to fight you," she said as she hoisted Neruda up in the air, letting her dangle from the branch.

Neruda squealed angrily as she was raised up in the air, squirming as her own blood dripped down her upside-down body. "That's cheating! You cheated, you cheater! I would have won! I would have been able to claim my victory! You were supposed to be my trophy!"

"I be asking you why, and why me, and why you want those other elfies to acknowledge your existence-"

"Don't! **Don't**! Don't talk about that, I won't allow you to talk about that!"

"Calm down!" Kenda replied while tightening the knot, leaving Neruda to dangle upside down from the high tree branch. "You not be in any position to allow or disallow anything anyway. So here's what I'm gonna do."

"Die! You will die! I swear to Elune, you will die!" Neruda screamed while helplessly thrashing around, splashing blood on Kenda in the process.

"Shut up for a minute, okay?"

"I'll find you again, and next time you'll lose!"

"What be making you think I won't just kill you right now?"

Kenda's threat only seemed to encourage the mad elf. "Aha! I knew it! You think you can gain honor points by collecting my body parts as a quest item, don't you! Ha!" Neruda sincerely laughed, looking completely unintimidated despite the fact that the curse had rendered her too weak to reach up and untie her ankles. "Well, do your worst! I underwent all sorts of torture when my comrades and I were captured by Cordana Felsong's militants in Falonaar! You won't receive any gratification from killing me!"

Breathing heavily, Kenda measured her options. She was royally pissed off and slightly shaken after realizing that she'd almost been murdered by this person, and incensed by the total lack of remorse. Regardless, a sort of weird pity that even confused herself welled up inside of her when she watched the battered, bruised, bloody elf with no eyes ranting about being tortured while tied to a tree.

Kenda had taken many lives on the battlefield, some of them less deserving of death than Neruda, but...no. Not that day. Not this time.

"I'll not be killing you, hun...loa guide me if I be wrong," she sighed while slinging her blades behind her back.

Unsatisfied, Neruda almost became more animated upon learning that she'd be spared. Defiant to the very end, she continued to rant despite winding at the pain from the voodoo and the deep cuts in her arm. "Oh, so it's torture, then? You don't know who you're dealing with! No, you have no idea! Go ahead, put out your cigarettes on my skin, I won't break!"

Kenda raised one of her hairless eyebrows in confusion. "What? No."

"Oh, not violent enough for you, huh? I know, you plan on pulling out my teeth? Well, Felsong already did that! Look, look!" Neruda said while painfully pointing toward her mouth."

Kenda just started to walk away, feeling that she'd heard enough. "Nope. Not gonna look," she said, exasperated.

"You can hit me with anything or shove your blade anywhere, I won't crack! You won't break me, you can't! Not even if you twist my ears or use clamps on my-"

" **Eww** , shut the hell up! What be wrong with you?" Kenda yelled, finally raising her voice enough to silence her former attacker. Searching for a way to keep Neruda quiet long enough for her to retreat, Kenda reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a small rectangular card. "Look, just take this, and I swear you better not ever attack me again."

"Oh! Oh! What's this? Paper cuts? I've taken worse!"

Kenda slipped the card beneath Neruda's blindfold, promptly walking away and talking over her shoulder. "It be a business card for Dr. Wilhelm Finklesnap. He my brother's court ordered anger management counselor in Dalaran. Seriously, go get yourself checked out."

Appearing even more floored than when she'd been hit by Kenda's curses, Neruda's jaw dropped open (while she was still upside down, which looked really bizarre). Completely floored, she moved her lips a few times as if she didn't quite know what to say, not seeming to realize that Kenda was already halfway out of the large clearing with her ancient mana and most of her wounds already regenerating. Incensed that she'd been bested by an act of mercy, Neruda struggled in the rope again, spitting out elven cuss words as Kenda walked away, who was victorious again, but also not waiting around for round three.

Outside of the clearing, a lone nightfallen man was waiting. Twitching, scrawny and constantly scratching himself, he displayed surprising patience as he waited for Kenda to pass him by on her way back to the nearest flight point. Theryn held his hand out to accept the quick fix of ancient mana, clinging to it but watching the sputtering elf tied to a tree off in the distance.

Looking from Kenda to Neruda and back to Kenda, he seemed slightly overwhelmed by the ordeal he'd witnessed while waiting for his ancient mana. "Man, that lady has some serious issues," the cracked out nightfallen junkie said without a hint of irony.

Kenda didn't even look at him after handing off his fix, just continuing to walk toward the nearest road as she tried to find her mount. "Yeah," she mumbled, shaking her head silently as she wondered by weird people seemed to follow her no matter where she went.

She hoped she wouldn't regret showing mercy to the woman who was quickly becoming her arch enemy...


	2. Dr Finklesnap's Counseling Practice

Kenda stretched in the bed, enjoying the soft covers for only a second until she realized that she was in an unfamiliar room. She'd only woken up in such a situation a few times in her life, and thus was unprepared for the minor heart attack she nearly experienced upon noticing that she didn't recognize her location. The morning light wafted in through the blinds, revealing a hotel room key on a dresser across from her bed, though she didn't see any luggage in the room. For a few seconds, she worried where her belongings would be until a hazy memory pushed through her mind, blessing her with images of her hands laying down her belongings in front of one of her friends. Another hotel, maybe...if she was remembering correctly.

"Think, think, think," she whispered to herself while rubbing her eyes. Her clothes were on the floor next to her, and her stomach growled with hunger, but she didn't rush to rise from bed just yet.

Glancing around her, she couldn't find any visual cues as to which hotel she was in. The sounds of the street from outside reminded her of one of the back alley districts of Dalaran - she couldn't explain why, but she knew it was that one street with the place and the guy selling the things - and she breathed easily knowing that at least she wasn't in some far away place in Highmountain or Val'Sharah. Or Tanaris. Which had actually happened to her once.

Smacking her lips as her stomach growled again, she leaned over the edge of the bed to get dressed until a voice stopped her.

"You're up early."

She froze. It was a man. Next to her. In the bed. Only then did she notice that there were shoes on the floor, and her kind didn't wear shoes. Maybe sandals like she did, or two-toed cushioned boots, but not closed-toed shoes.

Staring at the floor and mentally lamenting her folly, she refused to turn around as she desperately tried to remember what had happened the night before. There had been music, dancing, the Elite Tauren Chieftans...karaoke? Why was her head filled with images of her and a goblin woman she didn't even know singing live karaoke together in front of a tauren playing a guitar? _What the hell had she been doing_?

The man, speaking in accented Common, spoke again. "Are you alright?" the stranger asked with a tone of concern that would have been cute had she not been so afraid to turn around.

Shutting her eyes and accepting that she'd have to accept the consequences of her actions, Kenda tried to build up the courage to turn around. "Please don't be no tuskarr, please don't be no tuskarr...wait a minute..."

A few more intimate memories came to her mind, ones that were guilty but also quite enjoyable. Memories about a firm but gentle hand, albeit with five fingers, and words that were actually sweet rather than lusty. Turning around quickly, she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the memories were correct.

Laying behind her on the bed was an elf. Not one of the smaller pink ones, but a purple night elf. The man was long and well built, lacking the brutish handsomeness of a man of her own kind but still carrying the sort of rugged, more earthy nature of a druid rather than the unappealing refinement of the mages that filled Dalaran. Unlike the hated blood elves who'd fought her people so much, the night elf man at least had some body hair, as well as a malachite beard long enough for her to tug on. He looked like the sort of man that could move out to the woods and build a log cabin with her, were it not for the fact that he was still an elf. Regardless, she was pleasantly surprised. She could have woken up next to much, much worse, all things considered.

Realizing that she hadn't answered his question, she sat up in the bed and nodded slowly. "Yeah...sorry about that. Just a bit dizzy is all. And, uh...how you be?" Truth be told, she really didn't know what to say. She typically mocked her friends for waking up next to strangers, and there she was caught in the same situation.

Fortunately, the purple-skinned mountain man seemed to understand her confusion. "Well, I can't say I'm not a tad bit shy to wake up like...well, this," he replied while motioning to his naked self under the covers. Oddly, he began to blush. "But...I'm glad you're the one, if I have to find myself in such a situation. Did that come out right, Kenda?"

 _He know my name_ , she thought to herself. Smiling and nodding to buy herself time, she tried to think of what else she could remember. Bits and pieces came back to her, filling in enough of the puzzle for her to decipher the images. His hand on her hip, then pulling his cowl down to introduce himself, but at two different times...she had to know this man...

... _oh loa, no_ , she thought to herself as an image of her ever-present chaperone fluttered through her mind.

"Wait a minute...you in the anger management counseling with my brother...you be...Rynd?"

Her remembrance of his name seemed to please him, though even then, he was humble enough that his ego didn't show when he smiled. "In the flesh," he replied. "My mind is hazy, but I don't think he was at the tavern last night. I don't imagine he'd be very happy if he knew about this, though you know him better than I."

"No, no, we not gonna be telling him," she replied promptly, trying not to think of the last admirer her brother had scared away with an unwelcome interrogation. An unfortunate light bulb went off in her head, cutting their conversation short. "Wait a minute...today be...Tuesday?"

Rynd's long eyebrows raised, practically tickling her for a moment until she saw the disappointment on his face. "Stars, you're right...I'll be late for a group session that he'll also be attending." Reaching out, he gripped Kenda's hand. As different as his hand was from hers, his grip felt nice and firm, and she was sad that he'd have to let go in more ways than one. "I'm late. We'll need to go."

"Yeah...I know he's gonna suspect something if you showing up late a night after I didn't check in with him. He be like that."

Getting dressed in front of Rynd took a lot of willpower; Kenda could hear the little voice in the back of her mind whispering ideas that she knew she couldn't act on for numerous reasons. The two of them paused when they were fully dressed, and she felt his hand slide up her back as they were about to leave. Paused but the opposite of frozen, the whispers took over temporarily. Had he pulled her back to him, she wouldn't have resisted.

Fortunately, he managed to control himself as well despite the way he gazed at her so longingly. "We might want to exit separately," he said in a quiet voice. "My people are reticent, but they're terrible gossips whenever one of us associates with an outsider."

Her heart thumped under the touch of his skin, but the logic of his words helped her take the first difficult step to the door. "I know...I'm gonna be on the next street over. We just be two people going for a stroll."

He seemed reluctant when he let her go, but there was a glimmer of hope in his eye that she knew she'd sparked. Mentally kicking herself, she forced herself to leave first, trying to think of ways to explain to a being much wiser than she that what had happened at the inn would stay at the inn.

Outside, she waited near a covered market around the corner from the hole-in-the-wall place they'd spent the night at. Many of the shops in the ultra-compact floating city hadn't yet opened, and Kenda found herself alone practicing a breakup speech for a man she'd been with for only one night. It was an incredibly lonely feeling, and it strangely didn't leave her even when Rynd rounded the corner and approached. The two of them walked side by side in silence, she a ball of tension and he the epitome of calmness. Everything about the situation felt unfair, more so than the other times in her life where she'd had to break someone's heart.

Displaying no awkwardness as a man of almost any other race would, he pretended to 'accidentally' brush shoulders with her as they reached the street upon which the counselor's office was located. "You have a lovely voice when you finally open up to those around you," he said as they slowed to a halt at the end of the street. There were a handful of people at a hawker's stall directly opposite Finklesnap's office, some of whom were night elves.

Stopping when he did, Kenda was given yet another reason why she had to do what she was about to do. Folding her arms, she tried to lean in close and speak as apologetically as possible.

"Only when I be around my friends."

Had he been another troll, whether forest, jungle, or ice, the message might not have penetrated his head. The way that Rynd looked down when he smiled, however, signaled that he understood the message loud and clear. Kenda almost felt like she was more hurt by the message than he was; Rynd was the first man who hadn't reacted with anger to such a rebuff, and for a moment, she began to have second thoughts.

Once again, his maturity prevailed for both of them. "I see," he replied, a little more reserved than before but certainly not resentful. The two of them basked in the melancholy feeling for a few moments, knowing there really wouldn't be any going back to that night.

Though he didn't appear vulnerable in the way her exes had, he did appear curious. "Is it my age?" the Long Vigil-era druid asked.

Pursing her lips as she tried to find the right words, she did her best to explain without opening the topic for discussion. "No, Rynd...it be _my_ age. I almost been living on this Azeroth for twenty five summers...in twenty five more, I most likely gonna be dead, or going that direction. My people got strong hearts, strong passion, but our flame be burning out fast."

He reached for her hand, running his little finger along hers as he held on to her for one last time. Somehow, she knew he wasn't going to cling, and she let him hold on for as long as he wanted. "You're...saving me from being a widower. I understand...but I need some time." He looked up at her again, the sunlight allowing her to actually see the details of his pupils for the first time. "You're a very special person, Kenda."

 _Come on, don't be making me cry now_. "You too, Rynd...and I mean it."

One of the night elves down the street, also a druid judging by his robes, glanced in their direction. He might not have been able to see the details of their faces at that time of day, but his glance was enough for the two of them to let go of each other, physically and otherwise. Kenda's hand hadn't felt that cold since Northrend.

Pulling his hood over his face, he winked at her one time before his eyes were obscured. "Go in peace...and please be safe during these troubling times."

She smiled and nodded, taking the safe route of keeping her mouth shut rather than risking hearing what her voice might sound like. She watched him walk down the street, almost reaching the door of the office before he looked back. She would have been sorely disappointed if he hadn't. Only when she was sure that the people at the stall across the street had forgotten about him did she begin to walk, taking her time until she reached a bench to sit on. Her brother would likely be complaining to the anger management counselor that she was putting undue stress on him via lack of communication, and she chose to wait outside the door until his group therapy session was over.

For the better part of an hour, she tried different food at the hawker's stall, bought a gazette and briefly argued with a few members of the Alliance (and even one of the Horde) about politics. Eventually she realized that arguing about politics was a waste of time because people kind of hate evidence and facts, and she resigned herself to leaning against a lamp post outside of the door. She didn't know how long she'd waited before the military gait of a person who sounded angry even when they walked stumbled next to her.

"Gah!" gasped the voice of a chain smoker merely a few feet away from her. The hoarse sound was followed by the clanging of aluminum, a screeching stray cat, and murmurs from the people across the street.

Since Dalaran was supposed to be a conflict free zone, her normal awareness had been left at the metaphorical door, and it took her a few seconds to realize that the weirdo had stumbled away from _her_. Unarmed, all she could do was ball her fists when she realized that someone was banging around on a garbage can on the curb.

A figure in a black cloak had almost tripped and fallen just to avoid walking near her. Lithe and sleek, the person grabbed onto a railing on the side of the road in a flash, sort of like a normally graceful person who'd lost their bearings. Everybody was staring at them, which Kenda frankly didn't give a damn about but which seemed to cause the apoplectic figure to flail around even more.

"No! Stop!" the dark figure yelled, and it took the forest troll a moment to realize that the comment had been directed at her. Only then did she notice the familiar horns poking out from under the hood.

Snapping her head this way and that as if overwhelmed by all the stares, Neruda tried to pull the cloak evennmore tightly around herself. "Stop looking at me! I was only inside for a friend!"

Illegally igniting green fel fire within city limits, Neruda fel rushed down the street, frantically running away in embarrassment at having been seen exiting a shrink's office. The night elves who'd been across the street pointed and whispered, and Kenda even heard one of them mention the demon hunter's name.

Speaking without thinking, Kenda yelled back at the odd creature. "Hun, if you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have been knowing it was you!" she said, feeling pity more than anything.

Neruda continued running until she'd disappeared into a smaller side road, leaving everyone to forget and move on with their daily business. For her part, Kenda just tried to imagine how she'd bumped into the nutjob yet again, on that morning of all mornings, in that place of all places. She even wondered if she'd have to encounter Neruda again seeing as how she was the one who'd recommended anger management in the first place.

She hoped she wouldn't regret it...

 **A/N: she will. She totally will. Now for the last installment...**


End file.
